I found out about Steven Baris and his work through an exhibition of his that I saw at Pentimenti Gallery about six or seven years ago, I think. His use of plexiglas and mylar as supports for his oil and acrylic paintings along with the sense of space he was able to achieve, controlled use of high-keyed colors and intricate compositions drew me to see more of his work at later shows. At some point, we met at either one of my shows or his here in Philly and have stayed in touch ever since.

Steven often has a couple of projects going on at once. One such project is "Exurban Archipelago", where Baris makes use of Google satellite images to map out and manipulate architectural forms that are similar to those used in his paintings. In addition to the roll-over images that you can explore, there is a fictitioius (and funny) interview where Baris delves into his theories about exurban spatial relationships. Steven Baris's "Exurban Archipelago" was also recently mentioned on "The Artblog".

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

As with any kind of new tech application, there are going to be pros and cons. I tried out Google's Art Project and found it good in some ways and way wonky in others. The good includes getting to examine some works in close detail that you wouldn't be able to in real life. The not-so-good, for me, are the somewhat limited selections from each museum that you are able to see. Granted, it's a big undertaking to document the collections of major museums for an online application, not to mention all of the legal wrangling that must be involved.

I guess my expectations for more views of the museums' various rooms and collections were a little high at this stage of the game. Hopefully, there will be some tweaking of the program to and more of the collections included at a later time. That said, no matter how good Google's Art Project gets, it is still a far second-best to being able to view the works in person.

Some days the practical aspects of being an artist can seem a never-ending trial. Having had years of dealing with the issues that come up, I'm usually able to deal with what comes my way and move on. Every once in a while, the mental and financial gymnastics one has to go through sometimes are enough to leave a black cloud the size of Texas dangling over my head, like this morning. Once again, I was able to get by, but it still left me in a foul mood for a while. Luckily, I had things to do before heading up to the studio, so I had some time to distract myself, reflect, figure things out and ease out of my bad mood so that it wouldn't affect me creatively.

Once I got up there, I was more than ready to dive into work. I've spent more time out of the studio in the past couple of weeks than in and in that time, I'd had plenty of time to think, and re-think some ideas for projects that I've been working on. No matter how rough things might make me feel, getting into work-mode always puts me in a better place. I always feel at my best when I'm figuring out problems in the studio and seeing the results of learning from the good and bad can work wonders.